Minister not sure who paid for WWW 15

KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said today that he is not sure who paid the RM24,200 for the WWW 15 vehicle registration number he won in a recent tender as controversy mounted over why he made the bid for his official car.

Questioned today by reporters over who made the payment, the MCA deputy president confirmed that the Ministry of Health did not pay for the number. 

But when further pressed for answers, Liow (picture) hesitated before saying “not sure, I have to check”. 

MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, who was also present at the press conference at the MCA headquarters, attempted to help Liow by saying that the money went “from the left hand to the right hand”.

But Dr Chua also did not say who paid the money.

“When I applied for it, I didn’t know the cost,” Liow said.

He defended himself by saying that “the process (of bidding) was handled by JPJ (Road Transport Department)” and repeated that the bid was placed because of the change in his official car.

He said that “all ministers are eligible for one number, I didn’t exercise the option earlier.”

He said “numbers to me are not important, what is more important is service to the people.”

On May 28, it was announced that the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ismail Sultan Iskandar, beat close to 10,000 bidders to win the tender for the vehicle registration number WWW 1, with the highest bid of RM520,000.

It was also revealed then that Liow had won the bid for the WWW 15 registration number.

Thousands of people had thronged the three Kuala Lumpur RTD branches to place their bids for the WWW prefix.